The talks will focus on expanding trade and economic cooperation between the two countries

Moldovan President Igor Dodon

CHISINAU, July 25. /TASS/. Moldovan President Igor Dodon will meet on Friday with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Special Presidential Envoy for Transnistria, Dmitry Rogozin, to discuss bilateral relations and a settlement on the conflict surrounding Moldova’s breakaway republic of Transnistria.

"The talks will focus on expanding trade and economic cooperation between our countries that is actively being revitalized following meetings between the Moldovan and Russian presidents," Igor Dodon told TASS on Tuesday.

"We will also discuss the Transnistrian settlement, for which we will head with the Russian deputy prime minister to Transnistria to meet with the leader of the unrecognized republic, Vadim Krasnoselsky," Dodon said.

Earlier, Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip said he welcomed Rogozin’s visit to the country, noting, however, that "his arrival on a military aircraft is impossible". This remark was prompted by reports in the Moldovan media alleging that a delegation of performing artists and journalists accompanying Rogozin for the 25th anniversary of the Transnistrian peacekeeping operation, planned to arrive on passenger planes of the Russian Defense Ministry. Rogozin labelled these reports "nonsense".

Dodon deems Prime Minister Filip’s statements as unjustified. "When a plane of the US Department of Defense recently arrived in a neutral Moldova with a group of generals on board, the government raised no questions about this," he pointed out in a conversation with TASS.

Moldova’s Transnistrian quagmire

The Transnistrian conflict erupted in March 1992 when initial clashes occurred between Moldovan police and Transnistrian militia near the city of Dubossary, followed by an outbreak of armed hostilities. By the summer, it had developed into a large-scale conflict in Bendery, where about 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands were wounded and ended up as refugees.

The civil war was brought to an end following a peace agreement signed in Moscow in July 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict zone.

Since then, they have been maintaining peace and calm in the region, together with their Moldovan and Transnistrian colleagues, thus allowing Chisinau and Tiraspol to conduct negotiations on settling the conflict regarding the breakaway republic.